{"id":241259,"date":"2026-07-21T05:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T10:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/how-physics-and-mathematical-modeling-help-us-make-better-clothes"},"modified":"2026-07-21T05:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T10:21:16","slug":"how-physics-and-mathematical-modeling-help-us-make-better-clothes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2026\/07\/how-physics-and-mathematical-modeling-help-us-make-better-clothes","title":{"rendered":"How physics and mathematical modeling help us make better clothes"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/how-physics-and-mathematical-modeling-help-us-make-better-clothes2.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A new paper in the journal <i>Nature Physics<\/i> <a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2026-06-molecular-simulations-uncover-nanodrops-thin.html\">offers insights<\/a> into the physics of liquid droplets\u2014and while many people may not appreciate the mathematical accomplishment, they will benefit from the athletic wear and raincoats it makes possible. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41567-026-03345-w\" target=\"_blank\">recent article<\/a>, \u201cTricky Tension,\u201d explores the intersection of physics and textiles and how wetting is influenced by the structure of tiny individual liquid droplets.<\/p>\n<p>In physics, the cohesive force between two phases is called surface tension. This allows small insects to walk on water.<\/p>\n<p>In a three-phase system\u2014where gas, liquid and solid objects all interact\u2014there is a less-understood phenomenon called the line tension of a liquid droplet. This refers to the force acting at the boundary where the liquid droplet, the air and the solid surface on which the droplet sits all meet. Learning more about the mechanics of droplets on solid surfaces, known as sessile droplets, is important for understanding the wetting and drying of textiles, especially for very small droplets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new paper in the journal Nature Physics offers insights into the physics of liquid droplets\u2014and while many people may not appreciate the mathematical accomplishment, they will benefit from the athletic wear and raincoats it makes possible. The recent article, \u201cTricky Tension,\u201d explores the intersection of physics and textiles and how wetting is influenced by [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2229,219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-241259","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mathematics","category-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=241259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/241259\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=241259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=241259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=241259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}